General Tips (Revision 320)

As much as some storyline pundits may disapprove of this tip, we still highly recommend making multiple save files and saving before any decision -- even the minor ones -- in case events don't pan out as you want them to (and trust us, that will happen a lot). It's even helpful for when you learn an ability you're unsure about, since having that save file revert back to an unaltered state certainly would allow you to make more informed and confident choices. Remember that choices you make in the storyline or even in meta-game aspects (picking abilities, putting points in attributes, etc.) will have an indelible influence on the rest of the game.

Maximize damage in more than one sense of the words. Rather than making your opponents submit to overt muscle power, you can exploit their weaknesses to reap even greater benefits. Many enemies in Dragon Age II have immunities and vulnerabilities to certain elements, and discovering these specific elements is mostly intuitive. You can inflict elemental damage through spells or through weapons channeling the five elements, the latter accomplished, in turn, through abilities, Runes, or just innate properties of the weapon.

Like collecting loot? Of course, you do! Having a rogue around means more chances at rarer loot found in locked chests. These locked chests can be wrested opened as long as the rogue meets the criteria for sufficient Cunning. A higher Cunning gives any rogue access to these chests, ranked in 10-point increments of Cunning. The chest grades and their corresponding required points in Cunning are as follows:

You might grow accustomed to certain clutch players, which are presumably clutch for a good reason, but at the very least it's important to build your party around specific roles to not only prevent stagnating in key combat situations but also to keep the party as a whole very well-rounded. For example, you absolutely want the healer with standard party augmenting spells and offensive abilities, such as Dispel and some crowd control spells. Complementing this healer would be a stalwart tank capable of stripping threat away from the healer and withstanding tremendous damage. These staple roles would, rather unsurprisingly, be supplemented by major hitters, perhaps one ranged and one melee, to fill out the rest of the party.

The party setup described here closely follows tradition, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. As they say, there's no school quite like old school. Feel free to shift members around, but a tank is the most essential element. Without one, monsters run amuck, striking down more fragile damage dealers, and targets aren't conveniently clumped together for maximum damage. General chaos reigns and the result drives down the efficiency of battle.

Taken from the words of Colin Moriarty, author of the first Dragon Age guide, concerning this matter:

"One of the most interesting aspects of Dragon Age is in the realm of relationships. Relationships aren't only romantic, but can be friendly as well, and all of it depends on the choices you make, how you treat other characters, and even the gifts you give them. As was mentioned earlier in basics, many choices have a positive for some characters and an equal negative for others. Certain characters like certain gifts, so when you find one, give it to the proper person for a huge "like" boost. But if you make the wrong choice around a certain character, or are rude to them, expect a bump downward on that same meter. Oh, and as far as romantic relationships are concerned, you can have one with any character, regardless of your gender, or the other character's gender in question. Push the envelope as much or as little as you'd like in this particular realm."

He speaks the truth. Of particular importance is a relationship that is slanted more one way than the other also opens up special combat abilities for the character, making him or her an even greater asset to the party.

Rarely will you ever fight a single target. Rarely do enemies even have the testicular fortitude to face you alone. In fact, 99.9% of the time your party will be overrun by immense numbers -- what they lack in strength, they make up for in numbers. The tedium of casting single-target spells and dragging on the fight longer than necessary sounds pretty gruesome, so it's in these (see: all) situations that the benefits of AoE spells are really pronounced. Even against stronger opponents, AoE spells are all-powerful, mass killing win buttons. The only trick is to fit the greatest number of targets within the specified target region of the spell. The easy solution: Simply have the tank corral them, or often times the very beginning of a fight usually has the enemies already grouped together, if momentarily. Beware, though, that if the tank hasn't established solid threat the caster may suddenly come under intense fire.

When traversing indoor dungeon-like areas, which is to say any area that has enemies, always be in control of a rogue, whose eagle eyes can very easily locate traps before they're tripped and therefore prevent a lot of unnecessary injuries and damage. Rogues are even useful for opening up locked chests, which usually contain better loot, provided they meet the minimum Cunning requirement.